May 9, 2001

A New Show at the Apollo Raises Hopes in Harlem

By ROBIN POGREBIN

May 9, 2001

A New Show at the Apollo Raises Hopes in Harlem

ince the 1930's the Apollo Theater in Harlem has been known for its variety shows, with acts like the tap-dancing Nicholas Brothers, the comedian Redd Foxx and the jazz singer Ruth Brown, and the weekly amateur nights, which started the careers of Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald.

Now, as the Apollo starts a $6 million renovation, the theater is planning to install a production with an open-ended run. The theater is to announce today that a new revue, "Harlem Song," is in the works, celebrating the history of Harlem since the 1920's through song, dance, dialogue, photographs and film.

The new production appears to be part of a larger effort to jump-start this struggling landmark. In March, Derek Q. Johnson, a co-chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner, stepped down to become president of the Apollo, saying that his priorities would be fund-raising and making the Apollo part of a major cultural center on 125th Street.

"Harlem Song" is to be written by George C. Wolfe, the writer-director who is producer of the Joseph Papp Public Theater. The show is expected to begin an extended engagement next May, offering performances only on weekends — three on Saturday, three on Sunday — with the production going on hiatus each January through March. During the rest of the week the Apollo is to feature touring acts as well as the usual Amateur Nights on Wednesdays and begin originating its own attractions, said David D. Rodriguez, executive director of the Apollo Theater Foundation, which runs the theater. The Apollo is owned by New York State.

"We want it to be a permanent attraction at the theater," said John Schreiber, an entertainment executive, who is producing the show with David Goodman, a former vice president for special programming and projects at Warner Brothers, and Frank Wildhorn, the composer of shows like "Jekyll and Hyde." The show will be produced in association with the foundation, which will share in the proceeds.

"It will speak to all sorts of audiences: the Harlem community, students, church groups from Maryland, traditional theatergoers, eventgoers," Mr. Schreiber added. "Harlem is the fourth most visited tourist attraction in New York."

Those involved say they hope that by drawing people to the Apollo, Harlem's other cultural offerings will benefit. With this in mind, Mr. Schreiber said, $1 of every ticket sold will be donated to the Harlem Strategic Cultural Collaborative, a consortium of nine arts organizations including the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Boys Choir of Harlem and the National Black Theater.

Barbara Ann Teer, founder and chief executive of the National Black Theater, said she was glad that "Harlem Song" planned to share its proceeds with the neighborhood's established cultural institutions. "I think it's wonderful that they want to acknowledge the groups that have been here and stayed the course," she said.

The creators say they also plan to reach out to schools in the area, inviting 200 students to the show every week without charge and developing a curriculum guide with Dr. Howard Dodson, a member of the Apollo board and director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. "They'll get the most entertaining history lesson ever," Mr. Schreiber said.

Mr. Schreiber, who produced last year's New Yorker Festival and met Mr. Wolfe there, said he asked Mr. Wolfe's advice for an Apollo show that would honor Harlem's heritage. Mr. Wolfe expressed interest in doing it himself.

"I wanted to use my talent and my personality to help bring some energy into the community — let me give something," Mr. Wolfe said. "Also, it means dealing with things I love, which are history and rejuvenation."

That doesn't mean "Harlem Song" will be a living, breathing wax museum or a history pageant, Mr. Wolfe said. "Harlem is one place where myth and reality have been dancing with each other since the beginning," he said. "I'm interested in exploring that." He said it would also be exciting to see his name on the Apollo marquee for the first time.

"It's not history from a distance," he added. "It's history that has an intimacy." One sequence, for example, will take place on the night in 1938 when Joe Louis fought Max Schmeling. "That fight, it was American idealism fighting facism and Naziism," Mr. Wolfe said. "It was a mythic, titanlike battle that affected everyone."

The show will also look at rent parties of the 1930's, when blacks who moved to Harlem from the South gathered to contribute to one another's monthly rent payments. "Fats Waller and Willy (the Lion) Smith would be playing," Mr. Wolfe said. "It was a way for newly arrived Southerners to acclimate themselves to an urban environment." In creating "Harlem Song," Mr. Wolfe has joined forces with his team from the award-winning shows "Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk" and "Jelly's Last Jam." It includes the choreographer Ken Roberson, the composers Daryl Waters and Zane Mark, the set designer Riccardo Hernandez and the projection designers Batwin & Robin Productions Inc.

As to how he would juggle the show with his responsibilities at the Public, Mr. Wolfe suggested that he would share the directing duties, adding that he was used to having a lot on his plate. "I don't see it violating any time and space at the Public," he said.

The show, which will cost some $5 million to mount, will have a top ticket price of about $45, Mr. Schreiber said. The show expects to bring in more than 400,000 people in a nine-month period. "It's not just an art story, it's an economic development story," Mr. Rodriguez said.

The Apollo could use the boost. In 1998 the New York attorney general, Dennis C. Vacco, sued the theater and six members of the foundation's board, including Representative Charles B. Rangel, the Harlem congressman who was then the board's chairman, and accused them of mismanaging the Apollo's finances. Although Mr. Rangel denied wrongdoing, he resigned as chairman and agreed later to leave the board as part of a settlement with Mr. Vacco's successor, Eliot L. Spitzer.

The theater, which has 1,463 seats, is to start its renovation next month, including redoing its marquee and facade. Next month, for the first time, Dance Theater of Harlem will perform its season at the Apollo. And during the July 4 weekend the Apollo will test its first off-site Amateur Night t on the Mall in Washington, with local amateurs and the Smithsonian Institution as a co-sponsor.

He said the planned schedule for "Harlem Song" harked back to the theater's early days. "For a number of years the Apollo had five shows on weekdays, seven shows on weekends," he said, adding that the dancer Maurice Hines "has said he would start the first show in the last row and work his way up through the day."